YOUR VIEW: Where are the voices against hate?

Thursday

Sep 30, 2010 at 12:01 AM

When Barack Obama was elected president in November of 2008, many commentators concluded the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "dream" had finally been realized. Others proclaimed that the era of a post-racial America had arrived. It appeared to many that we Americans had finally put our differences on race behind us.

ROBERT V. WARD JR.

When Barack Obama was elected president in November of 2008, many commentators concluded the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "dream" had finally been realized. Others proclaimed that the era of a post-racial America had arrived. It appeared to many that we Americans had finally put our differences on race behind us.

Sadly this has not been the case. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization which monitors the activities of hate groups, the number of hate groups has grown at a terrifyingly high rate since the 2008 election.

Tea party candidates across the country have helped to inflame, if not embolden, the voices of intolerance. The tea party movement itself is not a hate group. But the absence of people of color at tea party events speaks volumes.

Kentucky tea party candidate Rand Paul openly questioned the need for and the legality of the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

When Glenn Beck, host of a show on the Fox television network and a tea party leader, held a rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the 47th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Beck proclaimed that he did not realize that his march coincided with the anniversary.

Beck, if he was being honest, is painfully ignorant. My point about Paul, Beck and other tea party members is simply this. The tea party members are not widely viewed as voices of racial tolerance. Their rhetoric, whether intended or not, has further polarized our country along the great racial divide.

Shortly after the Beck rally, a Muslim taxi driver in New York was brutally attacked because of his religion. It was assumed that he was an illegal immigrant.

Clearly Beck and his tea party friends had nothing to do with the attack. It is also true that only a few tea party members defaced photos of President Obama and cry that he was not born in America or that he's a Muslim. When did it become illegal to believe in Allah rather than Jesus?

At this moment the political atmosphere in our country is toxic. Many people are just too comfortable sharing their crazy ideas that promote intolerance of anyone who does not look or think like them. What is most unfortunate is not enough people are condemning these purveyors of hate, intolerance and political simplicity.

Where are today's social engineers? Where are our nation's grown-ups? Where are the baby boomers of the 1950s and '60s who led a revolution for a more progressive America — an America where peace and equality was the currency of the day? It is time for all reasonably enlightened Americans to tell Glenn Beck and tea party members, "No more."

Consequences often flow when people spew hate and it goes unchallenged. Where are the voices of the righteous?

The lessons of history are clear. In times of great economic stress, those who are justifiably concerned about food and shelter often look for scapegoats. In Germany in the 1930s, Jews were the bogeymen. Today it is immigrants and by extension most people of color.

We cannot allow our nation to continue to spiral out of control and remain silent. What happened to Shirley Sherrod is just one example of how troubling times are. When a woman of color has the courage to share her story of enlightenment on race relations and that tale is twisted into something sick, then we have a problem.

It is time for all of us who care about justice and equality to tell those who promote hate to crawl back under their rock.

Every night before I sleep, I pray that King's vision will be our reality rather than a dream.

However I know that prayer alone will not make this happen. If others care about the rising tide of intolerance that is sweeping our nation, then stand up and be counted. Stand up and shout, "I am mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."